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prime concern
last word |
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prime concern
Clean and cheap energy The working of a nuclear energy installation is quite similar to a thermal or hydel power plant, the only difference being that instead of coal or water, a radioactive element like uranium is used to heat the water and spin turbines to produce electricity. N Nagaich, Executive Director, Corporate Planning, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, says the basic difference is energy intensity. To produce 10 lakh units of electricity only 27 kg of clean uranium is required, against 700 tonnes of carbon-intensive fossil fuel like coal. A 1,000 MW capacity plant would require 350 tonnes of uranium and 35 million tonnes of coal to produce 8,000 million units of power annually. To ferry this coal, 150 trains with 24 bogies each would be needed every day. In contrast, all that a nuclear set-up would require to run for a month is a truckload of uranium. Nagaich says: “At present, 436 nuclear power reactors are in operation in 31 countries, catering to 14 per cent of their energy needs. Fifteen countries are setting up new reactors. In France, 58 reactors cater to its 80 per cent power needs. China, which is facing similar issues like India, is going for nuclear energy in a big way. Some countries have chosen to shut their reactors as they have completed their economic lives. Denmark and Germany have decided against it because their energy requirements are small and can be taken care of with renewable sources.”
The chief advantages of nuclear power generation are economic, environmental and productivity per unit area/volume. Lydia Powel, who works on energy and climate change policy issues at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, says Indian nuclear scientists were isolated from the world for 34 years, which they turned to their advantage. “They developed home-grown capabilities, some among the best in the world. Indian reactors have functioned well,” she says. However, this is not a guarantee against accidents: “Accidents have occurred in closed socialist economies as well as open market economies and India is no exception.” While the technology for nuclear plants is mature and accidents are rare, if an accident does occur, the damage can far exceed the harm caused by accidents in other types of plants.
The flip-side P Kumar Sundaram, a research consultant with the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), explains why nuclear energy spells disaster and why many industrialised nations have either reduced or shelved their programmes. “Italy, Sweden and Switzerland have decided to shun nuclear energy, acknowledging that renewable energy is a workable alternative. US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has put all new nuclear licensing on hold and gone in for renewable energy sources. Japan has shut down 53 of its 54 nuclear reactors and is getting along fine without the sort of power outages that India sees. Japan feels that any decision to restart nuclear facilities should be ratified by the local people. But in India, Koodankulam and Jaitapur nuclear power projects are coming up despite public outcry. The government is pushing through its plan, overlooking nuclear energy’s dangerous impact on health, safety and livelihood of local communities,” he says. Apart from Jaitapur in Maharashtra, protests have broken out at Chutka in Madhya Pradesh, Mithi Virdi in Gujarat, Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh, Kota in Rajasthan and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan.
Perceived danger “Nuclear is not a clean source of energy and radiation is a silent killer. Industrial accidents can occur, but in case of nuclear accidents, the damage can be huge. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island accident and Fukushima’s bad designing coupled with nature’s fury, are a case in point. However, the Indian Government has ignored these concerns and refused even to part with basic documents like environmental impact assessment (EIA), safety evaluation reports (SERs) and inter-governmental contracts,” Sundaram says. Countering the government’s allegations that the movement was “misguided” and instigated by “outsiders”, he says: “We are not only opposing nuclear but also proposing a renewable-based decentralised and people-centric energy policy. The government must improve transmission and distribution of existing power plants.”
Efficient transmission Improving efficiency of transmission and distribution will boost availability of electricity, agrees Lydia. Better pricing of power will also facilitate investment in power generation. But renewables are unlikely to make a huge contribution to generation as India needs high quality, continuous baseload power. “Renewable energy is not designed to supply this. Germany and Japan used coal and gas to fill the gap in power supply after the closure of nuclear plants,” she says. India needn’t initiate a formal slowdown since the scarcity of resources (financial as well as natural) will ensure that the pace of building nuclear plants is slow anyway. “In a world based on competitive economics, India cannot give up the pursuit of any form of energy. But it must exercise caution. The Three Mile Island accident occurred at a time when the US accelerated its nuclear build-up. India wants to increase its nuclear capacity four-fold in eight years (20 GW by 2020). In the last 50 years, it has developed only 4.5 GW,” she says. “Carbon emissions from nuclear plants are very small compared to coal and gas-based power plants, but they do generate plenty of toxic waste,” she adds.
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last word
Every time you meet him, you wonder: Is this man really a superstar, a two-time Olympics medallist, a world champion? Where are the dark shades? The studied silence, the arrogant brush-off, the snide put-downer? Sushil doesn’t do all this – he doesn’t do spin. He’s unfailingly polite, humble and respectful. Doesn’t he realise what he’s achieved? Has his monastic existence – wrestling, eating, sleeping in a segregated place – kept him innocent of the enormity of his feat? And his feat is massive. It doesn’t get bigger than this. Wrestling is the first among all sports – the first sport of civilisations, at a time far-off when strength was the key to power over others. Physical strength is not of critical importance in modern times, but every country in the world has wrestlers. Two Olympic Games medals in wrestling make a strong case for calling Sushil India’s greatest sportsperson. Perhaps, the greatest ever. He has excelled in a world sport rather than, say, a colonial sport played by 10-odd countries – which our favourite sport cricket is. Sushil reveres the ideals that seem increasingly unfashionable – deifying mata-pita and guru, respect for the elders and love for the nation. Who’s silly enough to still believe in these things, after all? But maybe the problem lies with us – maybe we are meeting only people like ourselves. Maybe we need to spend more time with Sushil and his wrestling brotherhood at the Chhatrasal Stadium in New Delhi. It could be a world away from New Delhi, actually. It’s a life most spartan and communal, with up to 20 sharing a room, often two to a mattress. The tiny rooms are made smaller by their boxes and trunks. For peaceful existence, the personal must bow to the communal here. A strict hierarchy must be observed. It’s not a hierarchy of physical strength – wrestlers twice Sushil’s weight (he’s only 5’-4”, 66 kg) bow to touch his feet. It’s a hierarchy of respect. Sushil has earned it. Earlier, a wrestler was lauded for merely being an Olympian, lauded even if he lost in the first round; in Sushil, now the akharas have a multiple Olympics medallist. “I train in the akharas for months on end, not going home,” says Sushil. “All my needs are here. The wrestlers are my brothers, and we look after one another.” Then he grins and adds as an aside: “Now that I’ve got married, I’ve to go away a bit more.” He got married to his mentor Satpal Singh’s daughter Savi last year. “We’ve spent only two months together,” Savi said in London after Sushil won the silver medal. In London, Sushil’s family was represented only by his brother Amarjeet. But his parents were never away from Sushil’s thoughts – mother Kamla Devi, who rarely travels and has not seen where her son trains, and father Diwan Chand. “He’s a remarkable man, a very brave and tough man,” says Sushil. Diwan Chand has recovered from throat cancer, which was detected at a very late stage. Sushil says he owes much to his father. “He’s the reason I took up wrestling,” he says. After winning bronze at Beijing, Sushil had told this writer: “I’ve been wrestling for 12-odd years and all these years, at five in the morning, my father has fetched milk for me. For 15 years, he’s never missed a day.” That was the dietary supplement Diwan Chand, a driver, could afford for his son. Diwan’s father, Hoshiar Singh, was mad about wrestling. Sushil says his grandfather used to sometimes walk all night to other villages to participate in competitions, dangals. “Sadly, he died six months before I got a bronze medal in Beijing,” he says. When Sushil displayed talent and keen interest in wrestling at an early age, Chand did all he could to help him develop it. Sushil joined the Chhatrasal Stadium academy at 14, moving away from his home at Baprola village near Najafgarh in Delhi. The very next year, 1998, Sushil won the gold medal at the World Cadet Games, and then the gold at the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship in 2000. Several medals followed before his life-defining bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and gold at the 2010 World Championships. Now he wants the gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. “We can wrestle at the top level until around 35 years of age,” says Sushil, who will be 33 in 2016. It’s not a pipe dream. Beneath his idealism, there’s pragmatism. He says he talks about the past, his wins, if someone broaches the topic. “I don’t think of past achievements. In sport, only the present matters. If I don’t practise for a day, I’m set back by many days. We can’t afford that.” Maybe that’s the secret – immersing yourself in action, not thought – that has kept Sushil Kumar, firmly rooted.
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EVERY issue has two sides and nuclear energy is no different. India is faced with the highly contentious issue of whether it should step up its nuclear programme for future energy security or go slow to assuage safety concerns. The debate makes nuclear energy a tough road to take for energy-starved India.
Sushil
Kumar